The present invention relates to a gaming system and to a reel assembly for a gaming system.
It is known to provide a gaming system which comprises a plurality of symbol bearing reels, and a game controller arranged to control the reels so as to randomly display several symbols from a predetermined set of symbols, and to determine a game outcome such as a game win based on the displayed symbols.
Such symbol bearing reels may be virtual reels represented on a display device or may be physical reels.
A known physical reel assembly 10 is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The reel assembly 10 includes a reel drum 12 rotatably mounted relative to a support member 14, and the reel drum 12 comprises an inner ring 16 and an outer ring 18 connected together by several ribs 20. A reel strip 22 extends over the ribs 20 so as to define a reel surface on which symbols 28 are disposed. The reel drum 12 also comprises struts 24 which serve to fix the reel drum 12 to a motor 26 mounted on the support member 14.
In some such reel assemblies 10, a lighting device (not shown) is mounted inside the reel assembly 10 for illuminating one or more of the symbols 28 during implementation of a game.
However, with such a reel assembly which includes a lighting device, for at least some of the symbols which are disposed on the reel strip 22 adjacent a connecting rib 20, when the symbol is illuminated using the lighting device, it is sometimes possible for the connecting rib 20 to be seen through the reel strip 22. While this may be minimized by ensuring that the connecting ribs are always disposed between adjacent symbols on the reel strip, this imposes undesirable restrictions on the placement of symbols on the reel strip 22.